Light of Peace

The safeguarding of human rights was termed as a guarantee of peace. It was to be the starting point of social justice. But what has happened on ground? The powerful elite have been usurping the rights of the weak segments of society. The first casualty after the violation of human rights is always the peace. The military dictators have suppressed their citizens and have curbed the civil liberties, the bigger nations have occupied the lands of their weak neighbors, the strong economies of the world have prevailed over the weak countries with fewer resources and the super / regional powers have established their hegemony over the small states as a part of neo-colonization scheme. The result was obvious, wars and conflicts everywhere. Had there been no violations of human rights, the world would have been more secure and peaceful

It is matter of concern that when the people are exploited, when their freedom of expression is gagged, when they are denied their right of self-determination, and when they are made homeless, jobless, and at times landless within their own country, where the peace would come from? Usurping the basic human rights breeds frustration in the people who can then react in many ways. The underground organizations and the fifth columnists are invariably the outcome of violation of human rights. Even the present day phenomenon of terrorism has got its routes in the violation of human rights. Once these frustrated groups of people resort to violence against the established authorities of their countries, they are labeled as the rebels, the enemy agents, the terrorists and what not. Obviously the enemies of the state then find an opportunity to patronize these groups with weapons and funds and use them to fulfill their own agenda. Then the authorities get together and think over how to eliminate these rouge elements and how to establish peace. But unfortunately no one comes out with simplest of the solutions; return the usurped basic human rights back to the people. Once they do it, the results will be surprising. The outcome will be peace, that too without firing a bullet and without spending a single dollar.

Today our world is full of crisis and conflicts. The violence has spread to all the nooks and corners of the globe. People dying of hunger and starvation in countries like Ethiopia, Somalia and Western Sahara, the tribes annihilating their rivals in a bid to achieve ethnic cleansing in places like Congo and Rwanda, innocent Palestinian men, women and children being butchered in Gaza and West Bank by Israeli jets and tanks, the marriage and funeral gatherings being targeted by NATO aircraft with sophisticated weapons mistaking them as Taliban, and then the matter being brushed aside terming it as collateral damage and the bodies of Pakistani and Iraqi citizens being blown to pieces by the suicide bombers every now and then.

As the electronic media has grown in size and sophistication and is quite free now, almost all the violence and conflicts are shown to the public instantly on occurrence. At times even the live footage is shown which is disgusting and awesome to observe. The research conducted by the psychologists reveal that a constant display of such images creates negative impact on the mental health of the viewers. These images create depression, anxiety and at times insomnia in the persons. This has a more pronounced effect on the youth and small children.

As far as youth is concerned they are already under tremendous mental and emotional pressures due the problems of modern living. The people, particularly the youth in third world countries, are already facing acute problems of joblessness, price-hike, corruption, insecurity, absence of rule of law and violence. Once they frequently see these nasty images, it only adds to their frustration. A frustrated youth of course cannot contribute positively towards the well being of society. Smaller children are more prone to the ill effects. They even do not understand what all is this. Once they grow up in such an environment, they may develop a psyche that accepts all this violence as a norm and routine matter. This will definitely be a dangerous situation for our future generations.

We have to live in this modern age that has given us marvelous facilities but at the same time we have to protect ourselves from its adverse effects. Then what should we do? Do we impose curbs and limitations on our free media? Should we switch off our TV sets? No, the free media is the essence of democracy. It plays pivotal role in creating awareness among the masses regarding what all is happening around us. As a matter of fact all the present rhetoric against war and in favor of peace is just because of free and independent media. Switching off of TV is neither possible nor advisable. The only conceivable remedy is to keep your young children away from the access of violent images. More over the parents and the teachers must try to ward off the ill effects of these images through motivation and effective teachings. The well qualified psychologists and educationists must be consulted on this issue so that they are able to see the light of peace at the end of the tunnel.

The turn of 21^st century was a bad omen for the inhabitants of this planet. People had hardly recovered from the shocks of two world wars and then the spine-chilling era of cold war, when the world was plunged into another quagmire-the war against terror..

At this point of time most of the world population is living under the thick shadow of fear. The Americans have a fear that the terrorist groups are planning another deadly attack on their cities which may come down upon them any time. The whole world has become unsafe for the American citizens who get travel instructions from their diplomatic missions very frequently. The European nations have been made to believe that they are not the ‘spared ones’ and are doomed to destruction along with the USA. The Israelis are afraid of a rocket or suicide bomb attack that may take away their life any moment. The Palestinians living in Gaza and elsewhere have a fear that if they do not die of starvation due to blockage, the Israeli jets will appear any time to smash them. The people of south Asia are afraid that a suicide bomber may appear from nowhere and kill them, in the markets, offices, schools/colleges or even in mosques / worship places.

Why are we so fearful? What are we up to? Are the security measures taken not enough? I think that is not the case. The American forces along with NATO troops are fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan for the last eight years. Despite having state-of-the art weaponry and total support of the world community, the American generals and admirals are now admitting their failure. American troops have pulled out of Iraq and a surge in the terrorist attacks has been noticed there since then. What will happen in Afghanistan once the American and NATO forces pull out from there, is any body’s guess. Indian are keeping half of their Army in Kashmir to subdue the local population and still they are afraid of more Mumbai-style attacks. Pakistan Army is heavily committed in fighting the terrorists all along Pak-Afghan border. Despite many laurels and achievements to their credit, the end to this war is not yet in sight.

The common sense demands that if one prescription has not been successful to cure the ills, better change the prescription. It is rubbish to keep beating about the bush while the outcome is total dismay. Even the military strategists advocate never reinforcing the failed plan, rather embarking up on a new one. One can only hope that the wisdom prevails and overall policy is modified by those who matter, so that the shadow of fear disappears and peace returns to this war-torn planet.

The world history can be conveniently renamed as the history of warfare. Wars are the outcome of conflicts and conflicts are present wherever the humans live. Conflicts cannot be alienated from the human societies. It is being over idealistic if one tries to imagine a human society without the conflicts. Conflicts are instinctive to the people. These can be between the groups and then it takes the shape of proper quarrels between the factions, the tribes, the nations and the countries.

The most effective way to avoid war is the resolution of conflicts and settlement of issues before they blow up to proper wars. People since ages have been using different methods and systems to settle their disputes. During the primitive societies, conflicts were resolved by dialogues, possibly in the presence of one or more mediators. Later on this system got further refined and was organized into reconciliatory bodies and councils. However the powerful persons of the society would always try to influence these bodies in order to have the decisions of their own liking. This is how the exploitation started and the justice system was left at the mercy of the powerful people.

Same is the case with the nations and countries having conflicts and thus fighting with each other. Who would then resolve the issues between nations that are potentially at war? Again the old axiom applies. Might is right. It was right at the time of Hannibal, it was prevailing during the era of Changez Khan and same is true in this age of ‘enlightenment’ also. The powerful empires, states and nations never accept the decisions based on justice and equality. No wonders that the peace is as illusive today as it was thousands of years ago.

It is said that the peace is of two types; absence of wars and hostilities is denoted with negative peace and prevalence of justice, cooperation and sacrifice for the others is the positive peace. We are far away from even the negative peace, what to talk of the positive peace. However the traits and attributes required to enforce positive peace are actually needed by all to attain even the negative peace. With these traits only the men will accept the decisions based on impartial justice.

Bulley Shah was a saint poet of Punjab (Pakistan). He wrote beautiful couplets about the inner self of man. One of his famous couplets in Punjabi language displays lovely correlation between contentment and survival (peace). The denotation of that reads something like the following:

“Look at the streams of birds that are flying high in the sky,

They come down to earth as and when they feel hungry,

They pick the food grains in their beaks and fly away,

Have you ever seen them hoarding food grains?

No, they never do that,

And they never die of starvation!

On the hand, the humans always resort to hoarding,

And the human always die of starvation! “

The message of the saint poet is loud and clear. Keep your lusts to the minimum, do not hoard resources more than your need, and rather keep them open for those who are in dire need. Keeping your needs and desires within the limits and caring for the needs of others is the bottom line of the teachings of all the preachers of peace.

The credit goes to the leaders of Malawi who have committed themselves to the economic uplift of the country and welfare of the lower strata of society. The country is clear of ethnic conflicts, tribal clashes and political misadventures. Though the country is still lacking development in various fields, the congenial and peaceful environment have created exceptionally favorable conditions for foreign investments and business. This has encouraged the entrepreneur to invest boldly in Malawi, resulting in economic and social development of the country.

According to a survey conducted by Global Peace Index (GPI) in 2009, Malawi ranked 2^nd in Africa, surpassed only by Botswana, and 47^th in the world. This is a great honor for the country. If this trend continues, the country is likely to make progress at much faster rate than anticipated.

The big question is; why the leaders of Malawi are so perceptive and why the leaders of other, neighboring countries lack this trait? Why the war torn countries cannot follow the example of Malawi and get on to the right path of peace? Somebody will soon get the answer; for the betterment of the devastated societies at least.

After the fateful events of 9 / 11, when the former president of USA George W Bush announced a ‘crusade’ against the planners of the attacks, the collective wisdom of masses woke up quickly. A surge of anti-war rallies and demonstrations was seen in almost every capital of the world. The general public on the streets were mindful of the fact that a direct military attack on Afghanistan and Iraq would not solve the problem but would further complicate it. They were of the opinion that such an adventure will have devastating effect on the world peace. I can recall big rallies in London trying to pressurize the government not to send troops to Iraq. Their stance was that the British soldiers were meant for the defense of their motherland and not to fight someone else’s war on the alien lands.

Most of such rallies were taken out in democratic countries of Europe and Americas. It is disgusting to learn that the democratically elected leaders turned a deaf ear to their electorate and went ahead with their plans. The result was obvious.

Collective wisdom generally makes good decisions and is not to be ignored. Public opinion is to respected and not to be disregarded. This is the essence of democracy and democracy always supports the cause of peace.

If I ask some simple questions from you; why should you tolerate the stupidity of others, why should you sacrifice your interests and benefits for the sake of others and why should you impart justice to others, particularly when the other side is much weaker than you, how would you respond? Someone may come up with the idea of human wisdom; others may bring out the logic and reasoning based on the knowledge.

I can bet that no amount of scientific research will be able to answer these questions up to the entire satisfaction. This Is because the subject does not fall in the realm of wisdom and knowledge. It is governed by the other side of the man ie human attributes related to character-building. Once these attributes are demonstrated, a tangible degree of tolerance, harmony, cooperation, affection and love breeds; and certainly peace is the ultimate outcome. Love and peace are inter-related and inter-dependent also.

As and when the people would desire that there should be peace in the world, it is a must for them to develop and display human attributes.

A continuous struggle goes on between two kinds of groups ie the war mongers and the peace lovers. The world history is witness to the fact that although the peace lovers are always in majority but the war mongers have always prevailed. The question arises why; after all, the minority prevails over the majority. Are the war mongers more powerful? Do they have more resources? Do they have more sophisticated and attractive philosophy than the peace lovers? The answers to these questions may lead us to any conclusion but the fact is that so far in the history of mankind the peace lovers have remained hostage in the hands of war mongers. As soon as the peace lovers start some peace process (which is mostly in the form of dialogue between warring factions) someone throws a spanner into the system and the process comes to a halt. The result is nothing but the disappointment and dismay. Just take the example of dialogues between the Israelis and the Palestinians. As soon as a ray of hope is visible, the dialogue process is thwarted by the war mongers from both the sides. Same is the case with India and Pakistan. While resolving the conflicts including the perennial issue of Kashmir, the dialogue process is derailed at a crucial stage.

Let all the peace lovers join hands to neutralize the nefarious designs of the war mongers.